I think his actual point is rather banal. What's more striking is, as I alluded to in the title, his hubris. As a fellow Red Sox fan, on May 5th I was tearing my hair out about Ortiz too. I wasn't predicting a turn-around for him, but I knew he had started slow last year, too. I knew that I didn't know what was going to happen.

What struck me about Goldstein's post was how unequivocal it was -- he's the worst player on the Red Sox, maybe the entire major leagues?

This is the same lack of doubt that drives many decisions about school reform today. Schools are dismissed as failures based on a handful of numbers and no real curiosity or doubt.